AFX Mainnet Goes Live as Layer 1 for On-chain Perpetuals, Targeting 100K+ TPS and Sub-100ms Latency

AFX, a Layer 1 blockchain engineered specifically for decentralized derivatives, has activated its mainnet. The launch puts it among a small group of sovereign chains attempting to match centralized exchange performance without sacrificing on-chain settlement.

The network goes live with capacity exceeding 100,000 transactions per second and median latency below 100 milliseconds, placing it among the fastest execution environments in DeFi. By comparison, Ethereum’s base layer typically settles transactions in 12-second blocks, and even high-performance L2s rarely deliver consistent sub-second confirmations under sustained load. AFX runs on a custom-built stack that combines DAG-based consensus with an ABCI modular architecture. The design decouples execution from consensus and dedicates the mempool to high-frequency order flow with protocol-level MEV resistance.

Mainnet also debuts a Zero Gas execution model, removing the per-transaction network fees that have historically priced active traders out of on-chain derivatives. For high-frequency strategies that depend on tight margins per trade, gas costs have been a structural barrier even on faster L1s and L2s. Removing them at the protocol level, rather than subsidizing them temporarily through incentive programs, is one of the choices that distinguishes a derivatives-native chain from a general-purpose network adapted for trading.

At launch, AFX supports perpetual markets on BTC, ETH, Gold (XAU) and Crude Oil (CL), with leverage up to 40x on Bitcoin pairs. The inclusion of macro assets alongside crypto reflects one of the most pronounced trends in on-chain trading this year. According to a BitMEX report covering Q1 2026, weekly trading volume in commodity perpetuals across crypto venues climbed from $38.1 million to $25 billion, an increase of roughly 65,000%. Crude oil perps alone moved from zero to about $6.9 billion in weekly volume during March 2026. Tokenized gold and gold perps grew in parallel, with the tokenized gold market approaching $5 billion. AFX is launching directly into that demand, giving crypto-collateralized traders 24/7 access to macro exposure without leaving a non-custodial environment.

The launch also arrives at a moment when on-chain derivatives are no longer a peripheral category. CoinGecko’s State of Crypto Perpetuals Report 2026 puts perp DEX share of total perpetual volume at 10.2% as of January 2026, up from 2.0% two years earlier, with the total perp market expanding 75% over the same period from $4.14 trillion to $7.24 trillion. The top 10 on-chain perp venues processed approximately $2.01 trillion in Q1 2026, led by Hyperliquid’s $625 billion. Hyperliquid currently commands roughly 70% of decentralized perpetual volume on its own custom L1, but that concentration has prompted a wave of new entrants competing on infrastructure rather than on short-term incentives.

AFX is betting that traders will choose a chain built explicitly around perpetuals over general-purpose L1s and L2s, where derivatives compete with NFTs, memecoins and other workloads for blockspace. The underlying thesis is that order book performance, predictable execution costs and protocol-level MEV resistance compound into a measurable edge over time, and that those properties are easier to guarantee on a sovereign chain than on shared infrastructure.

For market participants, the broader question is whether the perp DEX category will continue to consolidate around a single dominant player or fragment into a set of specialized venues, each optimized for a particular trader profile. AFX is making the case for the second outcome by targeting traders who prioritize execution quality, capital efficiency and macro market access inside a single non-custodial environment.

The mainnet is live at app.afx.xyz/trade